I don't care why you think we don't, we do... Everyone here makes it pretty clear that we "disbelieve the existence of a supreme being or beings"... Your opinion and thought doesn't much matter when it comes to word definitions...

It implies that a god exists and we "deny" or "disbelieve" its existance....

The correct definition is:

One who does not believe in gods.

I feel it works fine either way. To religious people that's the way it is, when you study English you tend to give up on perfect definitions and stick to the base idea of what the word means. No sense putting too much effort into it.

An atheist is simply one who does not hold belief in gods OR actively disbelieves in gods.

*shrugs*

All atheists fit the first definition, but there are a few who don't fit the second.

"Owl," said Rabbit shortly, "you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest - and when I say thinking I mean thinking - you and I must do it." - A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

(18-04-2010 11:41 AM)Unbeliever Wrote: An atheist is simply one who does not hold belief in gods OR actively disbelieves in gods.

*shrugs*

All atheists fit the first definition, but there are a few who don't fit the second.

Since you can't prove God does not exist the best you can do is say you have no knowledge of God

This is true, but I also do not believe in a god, in the same way that I do not believe in Cthulhu.

Quote:which means agnostic.

No. Agnosticism, as I have explained before, is the philosophical position that the state of truth regarding some matter - the existence of a god, for example - cannot be known. You seem to be describing ignorance rather than agnosticism.

"Owl," said Rabbit shortly, "you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest - and when I say thinking I mean thinking - you and I must do it." - A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

To be honest, I thought that you were making some kind of odd joke at first. After reading the posts though, apparently not. Anyways...

Really? You don't seriously think that humans, several thousand years ago, were living for hundreds of years do you? I mean...really? Do you live in a vacuum or something?

Yes, there are other cultures who claim to have members of their societies surviving for hundreds of years. Just take a peek at peaches in the east, if you want some mythos backing to that area...and then of course there is the Greeks/Romans; cursed to an eternal life but not eternal youth, due to the mishap of his wife...though I doubt you're after something like that.

The baseline is, no, you're not going to find anyone bringing forth legitimate evidence of cultures with members surviving for several hundred years, several thousand years ago, or even today(at least not yet); because that evidence simply does not exist, outside of the corrupted oral traditions and mythos they originate from.